Industry News for November 15, 2024

Venue News

Live! Casino & Hotel Louisiana has launched an expansive recruitment campaign to begin filling more than 750 new jobs at the $270+ million gaming, dining, hotel and entertainment destination set to open in Q1 2025. All available positions needed to open the first land-based casino in the Shreveport-Bossier City market are posted now on the Live! Louisiana careers website and ready to receive applications. 

Alexander Hotel has been accepted into Virtuoso®’s exclusive portfolio of luxury travel partners, comprising 2,300 preferred suppliers in 100 countries. According to Ingrid Velásquez Vilaró, Director of Sales and Marketing of Alexander Hotel, inclusion in Virtuoso will present new sales and marketing opportunities to the network’s luxury travel advisors and their highly desirable clientele. Virtuoso agencies worldwide sell an average of (U.S.) $35 billion annually, making the network the most significant player in luxury travel. 

People on the Move

Vakkaru Maldives announced the appointment of Teddy Susanto Wiryawan as its new General Manager, bringing over 20 years of distinguished luxury hospitality expertise to one of the Maldives’ most beautiful island resorts. Teddy joins Vakkaru Maldives from Hyatt, where he spent six years as General Manager across a variety of Alila Hotels properties in Southeast Asia. In his new role at Vakkaru Maldives, Teddy will oversee the resort’s operations, leading the team to enhance its offerings and ensure a guest experience that reflects the renowned Maldivian warmth and hospitality. With his wealth of expertise in both resort and city hotel management, Teddy is set to elevate Vakkaru’s status as a leading destination in the Maldives and beyond. 

A new “Top 250” study found that 88 percent of the top 250 conventions in the country will meet in only 20 cities and New Orleans tops the list at number three. New Orleans ranked above top-tier convention destinations such as Chicago, Las Vegas, Nashville and Atlanta. Only San Diego and Orlando came in above New Orleans for the number of meetings hosted. The study, conducted in 2024 by 2Synergize, LLC, Destinations International and Simpleview, analyzed the largest conventions of 2,700+ or more hotel rooms on peak night. New Orleans’ high ranking reinforces that customers appreciate New Orleans’ walkability, compact geographic footprint, world-class venues, unmatched culture, and hospitality expertise. 

Hot off the Press

Fluge, Spain’s leading audiovisual services provider, and Europalco, Portugal’s leader in audiovisual and corporate event services, have entered into discussions to explore a potential joint strategy for the Iberian market. Both companies are evaluating a collaborative model that could create new synergies and enhance their presence in the events and audiovisual production sectors across Spain and Portugal, as well as internationally, where they see substantial growth potential. 

Palladium Hotel Group, has announced the renewal of its football clinics, which it organizes in collaboration with the Real Madrid Foundation at its hotels in America, as a sign of its commitment to sport and children. With this project, which highlights sport as an instrument of socialization in childhood and adolescence, organized in collaboration with Sports Tourism Education (STE), the hotel group is committed to promoting sporting activity for its positive impact on the personal development and well-being of children. 

Awards & Accolades

EastCoast Entertainment (ECE), the nation’s largest full-service entertainment agency, has announced that Senior Managing Director Mark Letson and Senior Agent Brad Strouse have been recognized as the Special Events and Corporate Buyer of the Year at the 2024 International Entertainment Buyers Association (IEBA) Awards. The prestigious award, which is nominated and voted on by industry peers and agency partners, highlights their exceptional contributions to the corporate and special events entertainment industry.  

Interpretation and translation services at conferences have remained largely unchanged for decades, requiring costly equipment and human interpreters to translate across languages. Mixhalo, the real-time audio streaming platform for live events, transformed this outdated system with Mixhalo Translate. Now the industry has taken notice by awarding Mixhalo Translate “Event Technology of the Year” at the prestigious AV Awards. The AV Awards, held earlier this month in London, is the unrivaled badge of excellence for the audio-visual industry and the benchmark for the highest professional standards and best practices.